Grievance

As expected, the NHL Players' Assn. filed a grievance Monday over the league's rejection of the 17-year, $102-million contract between Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils. The NHL last week refused to approve the contract on the basis that the deal circumvented the collective bargaining agreement, apparently because it was dramatically front-loaded and tapered dramatically to $550,000 a year for the last five years in order to get a low average annual value. "The grievance is not surprising or unexpected.

One candidate to head the Los Angeles teachers union was laid off. Another was removed from the classroom for alleged misconduct. A third lost his position when his school was restructured with new staff because of low test scores. A fourth is an elementary school counselor who must shuttle between two campuses. Ten candidates are vying to be the next president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest teachers union. Their misfortunes run the gamut of what can go wrong for teachers, especially in recent times.

Former Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable has filed a grievance to recover $120,000 that the team fined him during the final year of his contract. A person familiar with the fines spoke to the Associated Press on Sunday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. The story was first reported by ESPN. The person did not say why the Raiders withheld the money from Cable's paychecks. ESPN reported owner Al Davis was upset that the Raiders lost two days of organized team activities in June for violating NFL rules.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - For nearly two decades, warfare in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in millions of deaths and cast the resource-rich region as the world capital of rape and crimes against humanity. One reason for the epidemic of violence is the greed that goes along with the gold, tin and coltan mined from its steep, green hillsides. An additional factor is the military interference by neighbors to the east, Rwanda and Uganda. Yet there's also an underlying cause that is rarely addressed: land rights, and conflicts over it, problems as enduring as the soil under one's feet, analysts say, complicated by factors present in so many of Africa's conflicts: years of chaos, fighting and displacement.

Former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin filed a grievance with the NFL on Wednesday to claim the lost salary he maintains he is still owed by the team. Kiffin was fired late last month because of what owner Al Davis described as acts of insubordination and lying. Kiffin was still owed about $2.6 million from the three-year contract that he signed in January 2007, but Davis has refused to pay. Commissioner Roger Goodell will ultimately rule on the grievance, but there was no date for a hearing scheduled.

Atlanta Braves General Manager Frank Wren said Sunday he had no comment on a report Tom Glavine may file a grievance against the team after his release on Wednesday. FoxSports.com reported Saturday that Glavine's agent, Gregg Clifton, is exploring filing a grievance. Glavine said Friday he believes he was released for financial reasons and to clear a roster spot for Tommy Hanson, who made his major league debut Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Wren, team Chairman Terry McGuirk and President John Schuerholz said Glavine was released because they did not believe the 43-year-old left-hander would make a successful return from surgery on his elbow and shoulder.

Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets, one of seven players handed conditional drug suspensions by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, says that one way or the other, he'll be playing on opening day. Backing off an earlier remark that he definitely would file a grievance of the penalty, Hernandez said Tuesday that he had not yet made up his mind. "I feel like I'm being rushed," said Hernandez, the Met first baseman who batted .309 with 91 RBIs last season. "I don't want to be rushed."

As they have in so many basketball games in which she has coached, Alemany High's players are rallying for Melissa Hearlihy. Hearlihy, 35, among the region's most successful girls' basketball coaches in the 1990s and who is known for her aggressive coaching style, will not walk away from a job she held for 12 years without a fight. Fired by the archdiocese of Los Angeles on June 5 for undisclosed reasons, Hearlihy filed a grievance with the archdiocese, of which Alemany is a member.

Major League Baseball players are threatening to file a collusion grievance charging owners with conspiring against free agents last winter. "We have concerns about the operation of the post-2009 free agent market," new union head Michael Weiner said Tuesday in an interview with the Associated Press. "We have been investigating that market. Our investigation is far along but not yet complete." The sides reached a standstill agreement last year giving the union additional time to decide whether to proceed with a grievance against teams alleging misconduct after the 2008 season.

The Angels will never be in a World Series as long as Mike Port is general manager. Port is filing a grievance because the Yankees were willing to offer Roberto Kelly, a 25-year-old .300 hitter who will steal 40 bases, instead of a 38-year-old fading star coming off back surgery. Instead of filing a grievance, Port should have taken the deal. RICHARD SIMON, Ventura

It's Festivus, "the holiday for the rest of us" popularized by "Seinfeld. " Observers of the fake holiday celebrate with an aluminum pole instead of a tree; instead of sending good cheer, they partake in feats of strength (wrestling) and the airing of grievances. Naturally, many people are airing their grievances on Twitter - perhaps no one more than U.S. Sen. Rand Paul . The Kentucky Republican started early Monday and kept going throughout the day. So let's see what Paul and others have to complain about this Festivus.

Alex Rodriguez's grievance hearing to overturn his 211-game suspension ended Thursday after 12 days of sessions, a day after the New York Yankees third baseman angrily walked out and decided not to testify in his own defense. Rodriguez's lawyers returned to Major League Baseball's office for what turned out to be the final day of the proceeding in front of arbitrator Fredric Horowitz. By the end of the day, both sides had rested their cases, a person familiar with the proceeding told the Associated Press.

Alex Rodriguez has had enough of the grievance hearing that was filed in an effort to overturn his 211-game suspension for alleged violations of Major League Baseball's drug agreement and labor contract. After arbitrator Fredric Horowitz refused to order testimony from Commissioner Bud Selig, the New York Yankees third baseman reportedly slammed a table and cursed at MLB Chief Operating Officer Rob Manfred before leaving the room during the 11th day of hearings on the grievance filed by the players' association.

Danielle Steel has written 130 books and is by all accounts a success, but she still deals with condescension from men at dinner parties. The 65-year-old Steel took to her blog to write a post, "Are you still a Brain Surgeon?" where she details her experiences with men who belittle her writing career, and those of her female entrepreneur friend. According to Steel, the situation happens this way: She will run into a man that she hasn't seen for awhile. He will immediately ask, "So, are you still writing?"

July 20, 2013 | By Julie Makinen, This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

BEIJING -- His given name, which means “China star,” signifies a lofty ambition. But reality was apparently much more harsh for Ji Zhongxing. Before the 33-year-old allegedly set off explosives from his wheelchair on Saturday evening at Beijing's airport, Ji seems to have been a lowly former motorcycle taxi driver with a primary school education trying to support his family. One day, eight years ago -- according to a missive posted online in 2006 and attributed to him -- he had a run-in with low-level public security officers in the southern province of Guangdong that changed his life forever (link in Chinese)

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. - Midland City is a place where things have always gone more or less according to plan. There was that time the Beck house burned down, but even then two Bibles and a picture of Christ remained untouched. So the current crisis - a little boy kidnapped and held prisoner underground for days - has left people here struggling to find a purpose behind it. They have found none on their televisions or in local newspapers, because authorities have released little information.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that accused the longshoremen's union and an employers group of favoritism in registering friends and relatives for dock work instead of hiring experienced workers. U.S. District Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez ruled Monday that the estimated 105 people who filed the suit after they were unsuccessful in obtaining longshore jobs had failed to follow a grievance procedure established by the union and the employers group to investigate such complaints.

Q: I was recently let go from a sales position that included hourly pay plus commissions. Under the company's written policy, the sales force received $100 a day for accrued vacation time. When we were let go, however, the company would pay only a lower hourly rate for vacation time that was accrued. The company said it was a business decision and it was within its rights. Is this legal? --N.C., Huntington Beach A: Employers are not required by law to offer paid vacations.

The signs on the freshly planted City Hall south lawn list a long string of don'ts. "No tents, stakes, camping, open flames or cooking.... No writing/painting/affixing signs, projections or other materials to trees, landscaping or public property. " The message that the past can't be repeated comes through loud and clear. It wasn't missed by the dozen gathered in the shade of a big tree Monday morning to commemorate the first anniversary of when Occupy L.A. set up camp on the site.

Los Angeles County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey gave conflicting testimony under oath during two union grievance hearings, attributing the contradiction to being confused and having problems with her blood sugar level, according to transcripts reviewed by The Times. Lacey, who is running for district attorney and has won major endorsements from newspapers, including The Times, testified under oath in 2009 and 2010 as part of a county employment dispute in which the union representing prosecutors accused the district attorney's office of retaliating against its officers.